Royal Fireworks Press Blog: 2015
The Relevance of Walden Today by Anne Faigen
When I began to write Finding Her Way, I had a distinct purpose in mind, grounded in my classroom experience. A teacher of high school honors English, I had always enjoyed the lively discussions related to my students’ reading of Henry David Thoreau’s Walden. Everything about Thoreau’s life intrigued them. Working a few weeks a […]
The Problem of Evaluation by Michael Clay Thompson
I’ve always had a certain mistrust of evaluation. Haven’t you, too? The warning signs are plentiful. Do you remember that wonderful paper you wrote that the professor misunderstood or criticized, not because it was bad but because it jangled his preferences? Do you remember the papers you tried to grade (think about that word: grade), […]
Reading Is Not a Spectator Sport by Steve Loe
In my novel The Glimpsing Book, one of the main characters, Henrietta, reflects: “The reader cannot just read words without truly thinking about them. It would be like eating without digesting. True reading is very active. A reader brings his or her own story to the author’s story. What a combination that makes! Millions of […]